Beacon Valley, Antarctica : Mars analog and home of ancient ice

• Main Author: Mikael, Bylund
• Format: Bachelor Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2008
• Subjects: Life Earth Science; Mars; Beacon Valley; Antarctica; McMurdo; Dry Valleys; ice; glacier; astrobiology; NASA; sublimation; diffusion; Bio- och geovetenskaper; Antarctic; The Antarctic; McMurdo Dry Valleys; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-44105

Ice has been detected near the Mars poles, but there is significant interest in also finding ice in the Mars equatorial regions. If ice is to be found in these regions, it is likely buried below the surface, and slowly sublimating away into the atmosphere. Abstract On Earth, similar conditions exist in the Antarctic McMurdo Dry Valleys, with Beacon Valley being a particularly good analog to the conditions on Mars. Beacon Valley has a deep layer of ice under a surface with deposits that are assumed to be approximately 8 Myr old. If the ice is of similar age as the surface, the question is why sublimation has not forced it further below the surface after all this time. Snow melt during particularly warm summers has been suggested as a potential mechanism for periodical recharge of the ice, and we investigate that possibility based on data collected during one unusually warm summer and one colder summer. The data suggest that snow melt did in fact not increase during the warm summer. Validerat; 20101217 (root)